Mario's Madness
by James Terrazen
Summary: Mario has been in the Mushroom Kingdom for years, and is known for his heroics therein.  But when his memory gets erased, the person he used to be will put the Mushroom Kingdom in great peril!  It's up to Luigi to find a way to get his brother back!
1. Chapter 1

Prelude

"Luigi!" Mario's voice rang inside my head. It made sense at first, because I was having a dream where Mario and Bowser were going at it again and he was asking for my help while I was hiding behind… something. But when Mario from my dream said "Wake up, will ya?" I knew then that something was wrong.

My eyes opened slowly on that warm summer morning. The sun hadn't been up that long, but Mario was already fully dressed. This wasn't his usual get-up, either. He was wearing the rare 'clean' plumber outfit.

I got up slowly and stiffly before looking at my brother. "Wow. What's the occasion?"

"Sheesh, you forget already?" Mario rolled his eyes at me. He knew my thoughts weren't coherent until about an hour or so after I wake up in the morning, so he was probably either just messing with me, or in a real hurry. "The Princess invited us to vacation with her in her summer home on Yoshi Island, remember? We only been planning this trip for a two months, now!"

"Oh, no! That was today?" I asked, having honestly forgotten the trip. But then, the dream I had wiped my memory of everything I did yesterday to make sure I had enough spending coins for the trip, so… yeah.

I jumped out of bed and ran into the shower as quick as I could. While I got the water running, I could hear Mario's sigh, which was probably his way of reminding himself of how I get in the morning. "Hurry up, already," he said calmly.

"I'm-a hurrying! I'm-a hurrying!" I said quickly as I slapped the shampoo into my hair.

"Lord Bowser!" Kamek shouted as he rocketed through the King of Koopa's lair. Eventually, he entered a round room where he found Bowser and his strongest generals talking strategy. "There you are, Your Evilness! You won't BELIEVE my latest break-"

"KAMEK!" Bowser roared at the interruption. "WHAT do you think you're doing!"

"Lord Bowser, sire, I have developed a new magic technique that will greatly boost our army's-"

"Do you think I really CARE about YOUR magic? You've already PROVED your uselessness! Now GET OUT!"

"But-"

The studded red door slammed in Kamek's face. In response, he sighed raggedly. "But I can make the Mushroom Kingdom defenseless…"

"Nincomkoopa," Bowser scoffed behind the thick metal door. Kamek, upon discovering that he can hear quite well behind it, decided then to eavesdrop on the meeting, if only to find out what's more important than making Mario fall.

"Dude," Red, the leader of the Koopa Brothers, spoke up. "I'm telling you, we're better off letting them go. The castle will be totally defenseless while they're gone."

"How many times have we tried that?" Bowser growled. "Mario always shows up and takes it back. Garrisoning the castle is not an option."

"The last time we tried that, we relied on that painting magic," the leader of the Hammer Brothers retorted. "If we garrison the Mushroom Castle more in the style of this cas-"

"AND HOW MANY TIMES HAS HE LAID SEIGE ON THIS LAIR!" Bowser roared. "NO! That's not an option either. We strike now, while the shell is hot, and THAT is FINAL!"

The spiky red door catches Kamek in the face as it whips open, flattening him between the door and the wall. It was this moment that Kamek truly despaired, for his master's short temper ripped through yet another brilliant plan.

_**Note from the Author:**__ I was going to add the plane sequence in, but it would make more sense as the opening to the next chapter. Read and review plz!_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Note from the Author:**__ I'm sorry that it has taken me over a year to write anything. There's no excuse for that but laziness. I might have an excuse if I were in animation, but no media is easier to compose than literary media so I have no excuse. But after reading my tribute to a long-dead flame war, I finally found the inspiration to go at it again. Along with continuing this series and The Road We Travel, I'm planning on starting a Super Smash Bros. fanfic with Toon Link and Red as the main characters. As I write this, however, I'm finding coming up with a plot to be somewhat difficult. Maybe I'll come across one as I type, but I'd rather have something beforehand._

_Oh and also this chapter gets some vulgarity points to its rating. Story time GO._

Crisis.

"Ah, there you are!" Princess Peach Toadstool called out with a wave as the Mario Brothers - Mario and Luigi - rushed to the plane, luggage in tow. Toadsworth sighed as the Mushroom heroes neared. It wasn't like them to be late at all, not even fashionably so. Then Toadsworth thought of the few times they had been late and shrugged it off. _Nobody's perfect, I suppose,_ he thought to himself.

"S... sorry," Mario gasped, out of breath and shape. "Had to wake... Luigi up... overslept-"

"Hey! Don't pin this on me!" Luigi demanded, only slightly winded from the run. "You're-a the one that demanded on taking that 'shortcut' that-a lead to the Pihrana Plant nest-"

"Boys, boys!" Peach clamored. "If we don't get on that plane, it's going to take off without us! Come on!"

Resolving to settle their despute later, the brothers held tight onto their suitcases and leapt through the plane's doorway, leaving the Princess and her retainer to walk through it.

"What good would wiping Mario's memory do us?" Bowser scoffed, having finally deigned to listen to Kami's hare-brained scheme after only one hour of constant begging, which was a point of pride for the Magikoopa. He'd had to go on for days at a time for some of his plans. He didn't mind of course, because no matter how long it took, Bowser always gave in eventually.

"Don't you see?" Kami asked, sounding rather frantic at this point. "Mario won't remember A THING! Not his brother, his 'precious princess' or that stupid castle-"

"Wait a second! If Mario doesn't remember anything, we can LIE to him! We can get him to join the KOOPA ARMY! With Mario on OUR SIDE, we could be UNSTOPPABLE! Why didn't I think of this SOONER!? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Kami pouted irritatedly. Bowser had a knack of taking credit for his servant's ideas. It was the price one paid for serving the great Koopa King.

"You got the spell ready, right?" Bowser asked, taking Kami's attention from dismay.

"Of course, sire," Kami bowed. "All we need to do-"

"Good," Bowser interrupted. "Focus on tracking that plane for now. Send out the Koopa Troopers! We execute this plan IMMEDIATELY! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Kami cringed at his master's order. That plane could be anywhere, and he wanted to send the troops out NOW? Looking for nothing? Having no choice in the matter, Kami begrudgingly retreated to his study to look for his scrying spell. Everything, as it usually turned out, was on his shoulders.

"Ah, this is the life," Princess Peach sighed. It had been an hour since the plane took off, and the brothers decided not to continue their dispute. Peach was relaxing in ther first-class recliner while Toadsworth read a newspaper. The brothers gazed out of their windows looking at the ground below and watched the Mushroom Kingdom vanish into the distance.

"Are you sure they're-a going to be okay?" Luigi asked, referring to the Toads that were left behind.

"Of course they are, dear boy," Toadsworth replied calmly. "There are plenty of well-trained soldiers standing guard over the castle."

"What if Bowser decides to attack while we're away?" Luigi wondered aloud.

"I highly doubt he'll attack the castle with the Princess away. There's nothing to worry about." Toadsworth replied.

"You worry too much, Weegee," Mario said with a smile.

Luigi sighed, only to hear Peach whisper into his ear. "It's okay. You only worry because you care, right?"

Before Luigi coud respond, however, the lights kicked off and the plane began shaking violently. "What in the world-" the Princess blurted out.

"We're under attack!" Luigi shouted, having seen the Bullet Bills lurching toward the plane.

Luigi groaned as he lifted his head. Something fell off the roof of the plane and bomked him on the head. As his vision cleared, he saw his brother in the distance, tied up to a tree. beside him stood Bowser, who was laughing victoriously, and Kami, who was waving his hands about and muttering some incoherent gibberish.

"Bowser. That figures," a familiar, feminine voice whispered. Luigi turned his head to see the princess lying down beside him in the overbrush, hidden from Bowser's sight.

As Luigi turned back to face his brother, a strange, magical energy washed over Mario, and for a second, the older brother seemed to be at peace.

"Oh, please, Mario, you have to help me!" Bowser cried. "The evil princess of the Mushroom Kingdom has-"

Bowser was interrupted by a fist in Kami's face. As the Magikoopa flew off against his will, the Koopa King turned to his eternal rival to try to figure out exactly what just happened. When he did this, he saw the same blood-red energy envelop Mario that Luigi saw.

"Fuck you," Mario spat.

"Oh God, no!" Luigi gasped before grabbing Peach's hand and running with all his might in the other direction, despite Peach's attempts to figure out what went wrong with Mario.


End file.
